As do many plays written in the last century, Mother Courage defies many foundational assumptions of drama. The author, Bertolt Brecht, served at the end of World War I and lived in Germany as Hitler gained power. During the early 20th century Brecht read extensively on Marx and Marxism. This comes across in his play due to the attitudes of the plays being very anti-government and anti-war. Brecht uses the structure of Mother Courage, such minimal background on the characters and scenes that are snapshots of time, to prevent readers from forming feelings towards the characters and clearly focus attention on the flaws of Fascism.
Firstly, Brecht fails to provide much background about his characters. Readers form connections of the characters through background knowledge. For instance, if readers were told that Mother Courage had done some heroic act in the past, or if they were told more information about her being a kind mother they may form a connection with her, or form some type of feelings towards her. However, by not providing any historical content about the characters, Brecht makes it more difficult for readers to deeply care about his characters. In my interpretation of the play, this keeps the focus more on the effects of war, which is Brecht’s main purpose of the play.
In addition to keeping readers and characters distant, Brecht also writes the play in twelve scenes that do not seem to significantly relate to each other. This destruction of the typical play structure, which consists of rising action, exposition, and falling action, focuses readers’ attention on the war. In a play that follows what we view as a “normal” structure, it is easy for readers to get caught up in the action and focus less on the big picture. Be destroying this structure, readers are forced to see the vast effects of war and government ruling through snapshots of different years. This helps Brecht’s goal to show that Fascism is not the best form of government. Through keeping readers and characters distant, as well as not using the typical play structure, Brecht is able to keep the focus of the play on the destruction of the war and the failure of Fascism.
As a reader, Brecht’s style of writing was initially hard for me to read and enjoy. However, as I got further into the play, the twelve scenes that acted as snapshots of time within twelve years helped me see more clearly the issues with war. Two scenes that stood out the most to me were scenes five and six. Scene five is about needing bandages for civilians injured because of the war, while scene six is during a commander’s funeral. The stark contrast between these successive scenes allowed me to see the effects of war on common folk, as well as on the soldiers. This would have been much harder to accomplish if the play had followed the “normal” play structure. While not following a typical structure may have helped the play, I thought that not allowing readers to develop a relationship with any of the characters negatively affected my impression of the play. If I was able to more deeply relate to Mother Courage I may have found what happened to her more devastating. However, without any reader-character relationship, what she went to is sad, but not crushing.
Overall, Brecht did a stellar job displaying the harsh realities of war. Through reading this play, his anti-Fascism views were clearly communicated. The lack of structure in the play and the distancing between characters and readers, worked together to ensure that Brecht’s main goal of sharing his Marxist view was accomplished.
No comments:
Post a Comment